Donald Trump 2016

8/14/13 8:35 AM EDT

More than three years ahead of the 2016 election, Donald Trump is already hinting at a presidential run, and the media — though certain this time around that he can’t be serious — are covering it anyway.

Dubbed a “sideshow” by NBC’s Chuck Todd and a “serial presidential campaign explorer” by CBS News, Trump is being accused by the press of engaging in yet another publicity stunt. “Folks,” the NBC News political team flatly declared this week, “he isn’t going to run.”

But don’t for one second think that means an end to Trump coverage. And lots of it.

Even as reporters suggest that Trump should not be taken seriously, many media organizations continue to cover him as a potential legitimate candidate, as they did in 2012. The reason for that is something Trump, the executive producer and host of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” is very familiar with: ratings.

Trump’s non-candidacy tests the traditional view at news organizations that political journalists are the gatekeepers, the arbiters of which candidates deserve serious attention by virtue of their fundraising, their endorsements and the strength of their ideas. Trump is making a mockery of all that. The attention he gets shows the media just can’t help themselves when high Web traffic and ratings get into the mix. And it seems both the celebrity-businessman and the journalists are in on the joke.

At a gathering of Republican presidential hopefuls in Iowa over the weekend, both ABC News and NBC News held interviews with Trump in which they asked him to dish on Hillary Clinton, the Republican field, and his own 2016 ambitions. Trump’s claim that he would spend “whatever it took” to win the White House was picked up by several media outlets, including CNN, The Washington Post and POLITICO, which gives Trump regular and ample coverage, like many other outlets. In the last week alone, Trump’s name has been mentioned at least 200 times on cable news, up from 87 times the week before, according to the search database TV Eyes.

“Trump correctly has surmised that political reporters in general are easy marks and he probably can’t believe how easy it is to find folks willing to cover his antics,” Chuck Todd, NBC’s political director and chief White House correspondent, told POLITICO. “I am generalizing, but [he] is always able to find just enough political reporters who have editors who think, ‘We know he is not serious but his outrageousness will mean more clicks!’”

“How many times do people have to fall for this game?” asked Rick Wilson, a Republican consultant. “Everyone knows this, and no one seems to be able to resist covering the spectacle, because Donald Trump - the brand - isn’t ever forced to post up against political reality. He’s a master marketer and brand-manager, and he’s learned that the media loves the bluster and the bullshit, even with the full knowledge he’s not going to ever, ever, ever pull the trigger on the race.”

Trump also knows how good he can be for ratings and is proud of it. When The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein tweeted that Trump’s interview with ABC News seemed like “performance art,” Trump responded with a hand-written note two days later that read, “Perhaps Sam — But it sure gave them good ratings!”

But like the smell of tequila during a hangover, Trump’s latest musings about 2016 are being greeted with revulsion by many reporters. The memories of his 2012 media circus — from his widely panned CPAC speech to his aggressive quest for Obama’s birth certificate to his highly choreographed endorsement of Mitt Romney after he decided not to run himself — are still too fresh on the brain.